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Friday September 28, 2007
POLITICAL ESSAYS
Why Bu$h Hates Castro
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From Castro's speech to the Honorable Judges in 1953:
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Batista isn't concerned with taking care of the Army, but that
the Army take care of him!
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He increases the Army's power of oppression and killing but
does not improve living conditions for the soldiers. Triple
guard duty, constant confinement to barracks, continuous an-
xiety, the enmity of the people, uncertainty about the future
--this is what has been given to the soldier.
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In other words: 'Die for the regime, soldier, give it your
sweat and blood. We shall dedicate a speech to you and award
you a posthumous promotion (when it no longer matters) and
afterwards...we shall go on living luxuriously, making our-
selves rich
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Kill, abuse, oppress the people. When the people get tired
and all this comes to an end, you [the soldiers] can pay for
our crimes while we go abroad and live like kings. And if
one day we return, don't you or your children knock on the
doors of our mansions, for we shall be millionaires and mil-
lionaires do not mingle with the poor.
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Kill, soldier, oppress the people, die for the regime, give
your sweat and blood...'
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But if blind to this sad truth, a minority of soldiers had
decided to fight the people, the people who were going to
liberate them from tyranny, victory still would have gone to
the people.
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The Honorable Prosecutor was very interested in knowing our
chances for success. These chances were based on considera-
tions of technical, military and social order.
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They have tried to establish the myth that modern arms render
the people helpless in overthrowing tyrants. Military parades
and the pompous display of machines of war are used to perpe-
tuate this myth and to create a complex of absolute impotence
in the people.
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But no weaponry, no violence can vanquish the people once they
are determined to win back their rights. Both past and pre-
sent are full of examples. The most recent is the revolt in
Bolivia, where miners with dynamite sticks smashed and defeat-
ed regular army regiments.
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Fortunately, we Cubans need not look for examples abroad. No
example is as inspiring as that of our own land.
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During the war of 1895 there were nearly half a million armed
Spanish soldiers in Cuba, many more than the Dictator [Batis-
ta] counts upon today to hold back a population five times
greater.
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The arms of the Spaniards were, incomparably, both more up to
date and more powerful than those of our mambises [= guerrilla
fighters]. Often the Spaniards were equipped with field ar-
tillery and the infantry used breechloaders similar to those
still in use by the infantry of today. The Cubans were usual-
ly armed with no more than their machetes, for their cartridge
belts were almost always empty.

There is an unforgettable passage in the history of our War of
Independence, narrated by General Miró Argenter, Chief of An-
tonio Maceo's General Staff. I managed to bring it copied on
this scrap of paper so I wouldn't have to depend upon my me-
mory:
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"Untrained men under the command of Pedro Delgado, most of
them equipped only with machetes, were virtually annihilated
as they threw themselves on the solid rank of Spaniards. It
is not an exaggeration to assert that of every fifty men, 25
were killed. Some even attacked the Spaniards with their
bare fists, without machetes, without even knives. Searching
through the reeds by the Hondo River, we found fifteen more
dead from the Cuban party, and it was not immediately clear
what group they belonged to. They did not appear to have
shouldered arms, their clothes were intact and only tin drink-
ing cups hung from their waists; a few steps further on lay
the dead horse, all its equipment in order.
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We reconstructed the climax of the tragedy. These men, fol-
lowing their daring chief, Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Delgado,
had earned heroes' laurels: they had thrown themselves against
bayonets with bare hands, the clash of metal which was heard
around them was the sound of their drinking cups banging
against the saddlehorn.

Maceo was deeply moved. This man so used to seeing death in
all its forms murmured this praise: 'I had never seen anything
like this, untrained and unarmed men attacking the Spaniards
with only drinking cups for weapons. And I called it [= the
cups] impedimenta!'"

You know about the frog, right? You put it in a pot of cold water and slowly heat the pot, the frog will boil to death. If you'd dropped the frog in water that was already boiling, he'd jump right out. Still not a nice thing to do but you get my drift...

_________________Mike Gravel for President for the Unity of all States.